Saturday, 11 May 2013

Moon, Earth Have Common Water Source

Water inside the moon’s mantle came from primitive meteorites, new research finds, the same source thought to have supplied most of the water on Earth. The findings raise new questions about the process that formed the moon.

The moon is thought to have formed from a disc of debris left when a giant object hit the Earth 4.5 billion years ago, very early in Earth’s history. Scientists have long assumed that the heat from an impact of that size would cause hydrogen and other volatile elements to boil off into space, meaning the moon must have started off completely dry. But recently, NASA spacecraft and new research on samples from the Apollo missions have shown that the moon actually has water, both on its surface and beneath.

By showing that water on the moon and on Earth came from the same source, this new study offers yet more evidence that the moon’s water has been there all along.